Friday, April 01, 2011

Dr. Alexander Young has recently written in his “How US can avoid war with China”:

“Twenty-first century China is practicing Sun Tzu’s (孫子) Art of War of 2,500 years ago, namely: ‘To win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the acme of skill,’ but ‘o subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill,’ e, using deception, dividing the enemy, encircling and attacking when overwhelmingly superior but evading when weak, taking the enemy’s country whole and intact instead of destruction.”

In response, Young advocates that the USA over the next half century follow this three-fold path.

[1] Recognize that “China’s rise needs not be dangerous, because the outcome of China’s rise will depend less on the pressures generated by the international system than how well US and Chinese leaders manage the situation.” So, despite any increase in size, military might and modernization of its army or navy forces, China will prefer the path of peace despite any chain-rattling that it may perform during the next decades. Therefore, backing out of commitments to Taiwan and neighbors is not necessary for the USA.

[2] Maintain “peace with China through the balance of power by hard and soft US power, as ‘China’s long-term comprehensive transformation of its military forces is improving its capacity for force projection and anti-access and area denial.” In other words, the “US should strengthen its military capability and alliances, and demonstrate its will and ability to maintain peace and security in the Asia-Pacific. Likewise, “The US should expand its soft power by strengthening its idealistic foreign policy tradition of what US President Barack Obama has called universal human values, namely, liberty, democracy, human rights and US credibility.”

[3] “The US must revive its manufacturing industry, increase employment, cut its unsustainable national debt (over US$14 trillion as of last month), trim the enormous debt to mercantilist China (US$1.16 trillion at the end of last year, according to the US Department of Treasury, but about US$2 trillion by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s estimate), which endangers the US economy and increases Beijing’s ability to dictate US policy.”